a b s t r a c tThe food supply chain is affected by losses of products near to their expiry date or damaged by improper transportation or production defects. Such products are usually poorly attractive for the consumer in the target market even if they maintain their nutritional properties. On the other hand undernourished people face every day the problem of fulfilling their nutritional needs usually relying on non-profit organizations. In this field the food recovery enabling economic benefits for donors is nowadays seen as a coherent way to manage food products unsalable in the target market for various causes and thus destined to be discarded and disposed to landfill thus representing only a cost. Despite its obvious affordability the food recovery is today not always practiced because the economic benefits that could be achieved are barely known. The paper aims at presenting a deterministic mathematical model for the optimization of the supply chain composed by retailers and potential recipients that practice the food recovery, taking into account the benefits recognized to donors and the management costs of the food recovery. The model determines the optimal time to withdraw the products from the shelves as well as the quantities to be donated to the non-profit organizations and those to be sent to the livestock market maximizing the retailer profit. The results show that the optimal conditions ensuring the affordability of the food recovery strategy including the tax reliefs and cost saving for the retailers outperforms the profit achievable in absence of such a system.

It is known that neurological impairments impact postural stability, but few studies have observed the biomechanical influence of foot structure on balance. The aim of this study was to develop an integrated device for investigating the relationship between static balance and the foot structure, derived from a footprint image, under clinical tests of sensory interactions. Quantitative analysis of the footprint image acquired during balanced standing was developed as an indirect measure of the longitudinal arch, an important structural component of the foot. A data pool was collected from 64 children, 32 children from each of two age groups (4-5 years old versus 8-10 years old). Six common footprint parameters derived from the footprint angle or contact area were used to investigate the relationship between footprint parameters and postural stability. Postural balance ability was evaluated by analyzing sway area in posturography under visual or somatosensory confliction conditions. The footprint parameters, derived from the footprint image, inter-correlated well with each other (p < 0.01). The relationships between footprint parameters and sway area were correlated only for younger children under visually deprived (eye close) and cutaneous unreliable (standing on compliant foam) conditions. This implies that the correlations between footprint parameters and sway area are very subtle which can only be observed in unreliable visual and somatosensory conditions of younger children. In addition, younger children with a lower arch height would have a smaller sway area and better posture control which might result from more cutaneous somatosensation or a flexible biomechanical structure in low arch feet during conditioned static standing.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of various levels of alcohol consumption on human response to auditory and visual stimuli in terms of reaction time, movement time, total reaction time, and error rate. Placebo level and three low-level alcohol doses were randomly assigned to 20 male university student volunteers. 30 min. after consuming the alcohol or placebo, participants responded to either auditory or visual stimuli. Total reaction time increased significantly at the mid-low dose of alcohol (0.3 g/kg). For alcohol doses less than .5 g/kg, the change in total reaction time was confined to reaction time, i.e., the processing time between onset of stimulus and onset of movement. Effects of alcohol were significantly more pronounced in the choice-type tests. Notably, the effects of alcohol on total reaction time and error rate were significant for auditory but not visual stimuli.

munication devices, such as communication boards or electronic or compute-based alternative communication devices, also often referred to as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices, to produce speech-like sound for the individual. Compared to conventional assistive device using the symbols or graphics-like language, microprocessor-based communication boards with individual-tailored switches or keyboards have been better developed for special education teacher or speech therapist [4][5]. The disabled person would point to a symbolic icon or switches for "speaking out" a word or phase in order to communicate with a person. For example, an AAC translator can convert a "drink" icon followed by "yes" icon to express "I want -14-ABSTRACT Wireless telecommunications holds particular promise for people with speech impairment because it can provide convenience for communication and enhanceuser s mobility. However, people with speech impairments are likely to also have varied movement disorders which result in the inability to use the existing voice telephone facility. The aim of this research is to extend the current augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system to wireless telecommunication service for speech-impaired subjects. A pocket personal computer (PPC) with wireless modules is adopted herein, that can be functioned as a portable AAC device, voice pager within a range, and mobile phone. The touch screen of PPC with designed graphics icon can be served as large buttons to activate the high-fidelity sound that is in turns sent to the wireless modules for "talking" through the phone. An AAC layout editor is used to link the pre-recorded sound to the graphics icon and to compile the icon-based graphics for each individual. In addition, levels of dynamic linkages, including script-based, category of use, semantic linkage, and frequency of use are implemented for assisting the speech impairment user to retrieve these pre-stored conversational items which can speed up the communication rate.